Liverpool can condemn and lament a lot after the match against Everton at Goodison Park. Not only about the final result, but also about the future of the team at the start of the Premier League season.
The Reds successfully proved that they can get out of the heavy pressure after losing 2-7 to Aston Villa in the previous week. Liverpool can control the game and present more opportunities.
Evidently, Liverpool can always excel first, both through Sadio Mane who made the score 1-0 and Mohamed Salah who changed the position to 2-1.
Indeed, Liverpool failed to maintain excellence. Two headers through Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin suggest that Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker’s absences on the pitch leave Liverpool weak in anticipation of crosses.
The match ended 2-2. Liverpool successfully stopped Everton’s winning streak at the start of the season. But it is clear that this result is not satisfactory for the Reds.
Liverpool bad luck
In terms of results, Liverpool clearly deserves to be the disappointed side. They actually managed to score the winning goal in injury time through Jordan Henderson’s shot.
Henderson has shouted, the other Liverpool players have cheered. But the referee then saw the broadcast via VAR and decided the goal was invalid.
Sadio Mane, who assisted Henderson, was declared to be in an offside position when he received a pass from Thiago Alcantara. This decision is difficult for Liverpool to accept, which considers Mane’s position to be clean from offside.
Henderson’s goal that was disallowed was just one of the bad luck experienced by the Reds in that match. More bad luck than just dropping points are the injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Thiago.
Van Dijk only played 11 minutes in this match because of an injury and had to be pulled out to be replaced by Joe Gomez. Van Dijk was injured after being hit by Jordan Pickford in a duel for the ball.
Tragic for Liverpool, this incident did not result in a foul and no card for Pickford. VAR is the cause again. Van Dijk is in an offside position so that the foul during the fight for the ball between Pickford and Van Dijk is considered non-existent because the game has stopped.
Losing Van Dijk is certainly not good news for Liverpool amidst their anxiety waiting for Alisson to return.
Without Van Dijk and Alisson, Liverpool’s back line is clearly under a high level of threat. Two goals scored by Everton prove that their back line is fragile and easy to penetrate.
If Liverpool’s midfield did not dominate the game, it would not be impossible for Adrian’s goal to concede more in the match as the threat from Everton was swift.
Losing Thiago would be a big loss. Although Liverpool still have many coatings for the midfield, Thiago has proven capable of bringing new colors to Liverpool’s midfield.
Now, Jurgen Klopp can only pray that the injuries suffered by Thiago and Van Dijk are not serious.
From the position in the standings, Liverpool are not in the worst category because they are only three points behind the leaders, Everton.
However, if you see the risk of hurricane injuries that hit Liverpool, they deserve to think that right now they are not in the heart of the Goddess of Fortuna.
